December 10th 2013 - Gi Noon & Evening (Fingers had it Rough)

Noon
Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Guard - Hip Bump sweep & Kimura

Attendance is starting to pick up at the Tuesday noon class; there was 5 of us plus Greg.  Ross who was on his second class, Bearded Josh, Jordan, Air Force Brian, and me.  I ended up working with Josh due to matching pretty closely size wise.  He kept questioning if he was doing the hip bump correctly, maybe because it felt too easy.  Of course that technique heavily relies on timing and the other person's posture to be effective in rolling.  Hard to simulate during drilling.  Greg and I both tried to assure him it was correct

The kimura from guard has always been difficult to setup for me.  I think it's because where you put your arms is so important for the top guy that in the words of Kurt Osiander if you get put into a kimura from guard, "you fucked up a long time ago, bro!"

Rolling: Guard Position, Shark Tank for Brian

This was the start of my finger pain.  I did so much gi gripping today that they feel like they were rubbed with sand paper.  Went with Josh and the question of how do I roll with new people ran through my head.  He hasn't gotten the basics down of grips and posture so I do my best to make my techniques as smooth as possible using the most leverage.  Eventually I give him some pointers describing what I'm trying to do and how he can defend it.  Greg was next and I feel like I did some good things.  I had a few sweep attempts that I chained together but it wasn't enough to bring him down.

To give Brian some extra tournament prep, Greg had Jordan and I take turns rolling with him under tournament rules for 4 rounds of 5 minutes.  Like I always say, he's doing great for how new he is to BJJ.  We put him through the ringer and he came out pretty well.  I was able to setup the farside armbar from side control twice and told him afterwards to not put his arm on that side of my neck. 

Evening
Theme & Techniques: Competition prep reps

Brian returned for the evening class for more prep.  Class was run similar to the Saturday competition class, which I'll be sad to see go.  We did 4 minute rounds of working on our guard technique (omoplata) guard pass (over/under), and our #3 (Arm Drag to Single Leg).  I worked with Adam on all of these and he helped me out quite a bit with the over/under pass.  He does a few things slightly different that I'm going to start incorporating into this technique.

Rolling: 8 Minute Drill, Tournament rules matches

I worked with Adam again for the 8 minute drill and I'm happy with my performance.  I was able to escape every position except side mount, he is a boss at that position.  There were a few times that I could feel his strength and size being a helpful factor in him escaping. 

I did matches against Adam, Brian, and Moe.  Between the matches Greg had the guys competing do some calisthenics to make rolling a little more difficult.  I felt bad just watching them, but not too bad.  I kept Adam in guard for quite a while but eventually he got ahead of me and I remained in side control for the rest of the round. Brian almost made the same mistake as earlier and I reminded him of the far side arm bar.  Later on somehow the kimura from guard presented itself disproving my earlier assumption that I suck at setting it up.  Moe pulled guard as soon as he got grips but he wasn't able to lock it up and fell pretty hard on the mat.  It probably looked like I slammed him.  I took it easy on him due to him being worn out and made him work to escape my mount when he wanted to give up.